Rita evacuation turns into traffic nightmare - Traffic backed up 100 miles

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N22308707.htm

HOUSTON, Sept 22 (Reuters) - A mass evacuation ahead of Hurricane Rita became its own disaster on Thursday as traffic backed up for at least 100 miles (160 km) when a million people tried to flee the Texas coast.

Tempers flared in the 97 degree Fahrenheit (36 Celsius) heat at the few gas stations that still had gas, overheated cars lined the freeways and trips that normally take 15 minutes stretched into hours.

Texas officials called for evacuation of the Houston area, including the city of Galveston, on Wednesday as Rita, now a Category 4 storm with 150 mile per hour (241.4-kph) winds, took aim from the Gulf of Mexico.

In the exodus that ensued, cars moved so slowly on Interstate 45, the main road to Dallas 240 miles (384 km) north, that people had time to get out of their cars, walk to nearby stores, wait in long lines at restrooms and return to vehicles that had not moved. snip

John Griffin, 37, Houston, his wife and two young daughters turned back to Houston after several hours on the road trying to move away from the coast.

[Silverhair]

1. Traffic on I-45 Northbound, just outside Dallas is still strong.

Moving fast, but lots of it. Normally it is pretty light traffic.

[DoYouEverWonder]

2. By tommorrow night

you'll probably be able to drive the normal speed limit out.

That's what happened in NO by Sunday night before the storm. The roads were mostly clear by then.

[beingthere]

3. That's as scary as the flood, the wind

When you think it can't get any worse, it does.

[wtmusic]

4. Now imagine a nuke going off in a US metro area

We are in a sorry, sorry state of affairs